Samstag, 10. März 2018

As usual, I have many works-in-progress (or WIPs for short) on my knitting needles. Most of them are my own ideas ... some of them will work and eventually been made into finished objects and patterns, some will be put in hibernation and maybe unearthed at a later date (usually slightly altered), and some will be frogged completely.
Here are the current ones that are most likely to be made into finished objects and maybe even patterns :)

Short row scarf with lace pattern inbetween - similar to the Mermaid's Garden Scarf, but not quite :) The yarn I used here is Schoppel Zauberball colorway Teezeremonie. Since the pattern is quite lacy it will look better after being blocked ...

The idea here, was to knit a hat completely without swatching, but with an interesting twist (or rather slant :) The finished shape was supposed to be similar to a Pussy Hat. It took me five (yes, five!) attempts to get the closing vertical edge right(-ish) ... but it still is too roomy and slouchy to my liking. So at least the upper part will be frogged again and knitted differently - or maybe the complete hat ... (?) For this project I have used Lana Grossa Cool Wool Big Color.

Ever since I saw knitted pieces with square holes on the internet, I wanted to do something similar for myself - but of course without having to cut my yarn in the middle of a project. It took me quite a while to figure out how to knit them. Once you've grasped the idea this is great for mindless (TV, train etc.) knitting. When this piece is finished it will be a big wrap. The yarn I have used here is Wollmeise Lace.

After I had finished the Starburst Mitts in 2014, I thought it might be a good idea to do an opposite construction to them, i.e. to group the short rows around a point at your wrist or at the edge or your hand - instead of around the thumb. I gave up on the idea then, but at Christmas I tried them again. This time the shaping worked a bit better, but it still isn't quite right. But I guess I will finish these - if only just to see how they fit around my hands. It might just work once they are closed. Here I used some hand-dyed yarn from Frau Wo aus Po - leftovers of the yarn that I used for my Seitenstreifen Socks.

If you have any ideas for pattern names, please let me know. Choosing names is not my strong suit :)

Donnerstag, 8. März 2018

Only three more weeks until Easter ... these cute little easter eggs are great to use up your self-striping fingering weight leftovers and maybe a funny project to try a three-dimensional piece of knitting.

about 5 grams of fingering weight yarn - I used leftovers from self-striping sock yarn

2.5mm dpns or circulars

stuffing - I used (really) old yarn leftovers and waste fabric (cut into small pieces)

a removable stitch marker to mark the end of your round

a tapestry needle

Size
Your finished eggs will be a bit bigger than hen's eggs.

Techniques and Abbreviations

Magic Ring CO: Basically, the magic ring technique (from crochet) is used to cast on knitted stitches. There are several videos on Youtube that show the technique - I used something similar to the technique shown in the first video, but since this is fiddly work, just use the one that suits you best.

Instructions
CO 8 sts and join in round - I used a Magic Ring CO (see link above). or just CO8 and join in round, if you do so, keep the tail outside of the egg, so that you can use it later to close the little hole. If you start with the Magic Ring CO, your piece will look like in illustration 1.
Round 1: k all - now your piece will look like in illustration 2.
Round 2: [kfb]*8
Round 3: k all
Round 4: [k1, kfb]*8
Round 5: k all
Round 6: k all
Round 7: [kfb, k2]*8
Round 8: k all
Round 9: k all
Round 10: [k2, kfb, k1]*8
Round 11: k all
Round 12: k all
Round 13: [k4, kfb]*8 - now your piece will look similar to illustration 3

Round 34: k all
Start to put stuffing into your egg. Stuffing the egg will become more difficult the smaller the upper opening gets. Now your piece will look similar to illustration 4.
Round 35: [k2tog, k1]*8

Round 36: k all

Round 37: k all
Round 38: [k2tog]*8
Round 39: [k2tog]*4
Cut yarn and thread it through a tapestry needle. Make sure your egg has enough stuffing.
Catch the remaining 4 sts with the needle and pull tight. Fasten off and weave in ends.

Donnerstag, 1. März 2018

The nice thing about the changing seasons and holidays is that you can always have new decorations :) - and since Easter is approaching, I decided to knit a potholder with an easter bunny theme. This started to get me a bit towards an Easter mood - plus it gave me a good excuse to start buying chocolate eggs ... only for the photos, of course ;)
Similar to other potholder / washcloth patterns that I have published here (e.g. I ♥ Intarsia Washcloth, Tannenbäumchen Potholder), it is a combination of short rows and intarsia, which leads to a piece that looks good from both sides.

Throughout the pattern, the following notation is used: C1 (k4), C2 (k10, w+t, k10), C1 (k to end) means, knit 4 stitches in C1, change to C2 and knit 10 sts, do a wrap and turn, knit 10 stitches and then change back to C1 and k to end. I.e. color is indicated before the knitting instructions for that yarn and the knitting instructions for that yarn are given in brackets after the color.

Note: in some rows the wrap has to be made just at the color change in the row below, e.g. Ridge B11 where you knit 11 sts in C1 and the 12 stitch that is to be wrapped was knitted in C2. In this case, it's advisable to change the color (as if to knit the next stitch in the new color), wrap and turn in the new color, and then to change back. This gives nicer color edges.

Grafting in Garter Stitch: A technique to get an invisible (knitted) seam - this technique is shown in this YouTube Video by knittinghelp.com.

Weaving in (ends) while knitting: as shown in this YouTube video by So, I make stuff. This technique is used here to carry yarn of another color to point further along in your row while avoiding a long float.

Weaving in yarn while carrying it back: Draw a long loop of C2 (white in the illustration) to the point closer to the beginning of the rowwhere you want to knit it (picture 1). This gives you a really long float. Knit the first stitch (picture 2). Before knitting the second stitch, catch the float by put the left hand needle under the float (picutre 3) and then knit the stitch with your working yarn as usual. If you catch the float every second stitch, the WS will look as shown in picture 4. (This is a bit like catching floats in stranded knitting as shown in this YouTube video by Knit Purl Hunter.)The last two techniques (this and weaving in (ends) while knitting) will are used to avoid a long float that runs parallel to your knitting - and to avoid cutting your yarn.

Click to enlarge

Construction

This potholder is knitted in 5 parts. It starts with a provisional CO. Then each row is a stitch shorter than the last one, One part ends, when the row is only 1 stitch (plus 1 w+t) long - then the next part begins and each row is one stitch longer than the last one until all stitches are knitted and we've sucessfully knitted around a corner. Then the row length is getting shorter again for the next corner.

After knitting around four corners and the two sides (CO and last row) are grafted in garter stitch.

Take out your scrap yarn of the provisional cast on and put the live stitches on a knitting needle. Cut your yarns but leave tails long enough for grafting.
Graft in garter stitch: 12sts in C1 and 8 sts in C2.

If there is still a hole in the middle, use the C2 end to sew it closed.
Weave in ends.

Chart
The chart below shows one half of the potholder. The numbers indicate the number of stitches per color of each ridge (including the slipped stitch at the beginning of each row). The brown number gives the stitches in C2 and the black number the stitches in C1.
The grey highlighted rows are added for readability only.

Donnerstag, 22. Februar 2018

If you're anything like me, you will have lots of yarn leftovers in your stash - not enough of one type of yarn to make something new, but also too much (and too good) to throw it away. I had long thought about a way to mix up leftovers to make them into something whole, but it took me a while to design a nice little pattern for it.

So, here's an interesting way of stashbusting and using up some beautiful yarn leftovers. It's a cowl that is knitted flat - started with a provisional CO and joined in the round by grafting. It's knitted all in garter stitch - i.e. you do not have to purl. Basically, it's a chevron pattern on a bias.

The pattern is written for fingering weight yarn, but I have included a way to calculate the number of stitches for other yarn weights and as well.

As to the name: Actually Skein Hash is a cryptographic hash function. These functions are used to calculate digital signatures and have many other applications in information security. When I saw the name I thought that this was too good to be missed as the name for knitting pattern - it was actually one of the rare cases where I had a name before I had a pattern to suit it :)
And since hash means (according to Webster's Dictionary) "confuse, muddle" it fits perfectly, since this is exactly what this pattern does with the yarn from your leftover skeins.

Grafting in Garter Stitch: A technique to get an invisible (knitted) seam - this technique is shown in this YouTube Video by knittinghelp.com.

Carrying yarn up: When you're knitting chevrons on a bias you have to BO or CO at the beginning or end of a row. And since you're using three strands of yarn, you need to bring the yarn that you're not using (for the current row) with you. This can be done by twisting the unused yarn with the current yarn after every BO or CO stitch - similar to the technique of carrying yarn up on the side of your work - this technique is shown in this YouTube video by Knit Purl Hunter.

Gauge and Size
In garter stitch 5 stitches gave 2 cm in width and 8 rows (4 ridges) gave 2 cm in height.
The cowl that I knitted measures about 24 cm in width and 124 cm in circumference.

The lenght is adjusted easily, by knitting more or fewer rows.
If you want to change the width, knit a swatch in garter, calculate the number of stitches you'd need to cast on for the desired width, multiply this number by 2 (because of the chevron on a bias pattern) and then cast the number of stitches nearest to that that is a multiple of 10.

Example Calculation 1: If your swatch 9 stitches give 5 cm in width - and you want your finished piece to measure 25 cm in width. 45 stitches would normally give 25 cm. Multiplied by 2 this gives 90 stitches to cast on with that yarn - and since 90 is divisible by 10 you don't need to add or subtract from that number.

Example Calculation 2 (with a bigger yarn): Your swatch shows that 3 stitches give 2 cm in with - and you want a 22 cm wide cowl: 33 stitches would have to be cast on for a cowl in plain garter stitch (without the chevron pattern). Multiplied by 2 it'd give 66 stitches - the nearest multiple of 10 is 70, so you have to cast on 70 sts.

Using Your Leftovers
Go stash diving and find about 200 grams of yarn of the same weight - I used fingering weight yarn of the same part of the color spectrum (blue-ish), but I think color combinations would work as well. You always work with 3 skeins at a time, the one row is knitted with the skein 1, the next with skein 2, the next with skein 3, and then you start again with skein 1. Once one strand runs out of yarn, just connect the next one to it.
I wanted to rather consistent color distribution (or as consistent as possible). That's why I seperated some of the leftover skeins into two skeins and used them at different times. This will even increase the numbers of ends to weave in, but I prefered this over a color change that seemed to abrupt.

Instructions
You will always work with three colors. After each row, you change to the next color.

Repeat until your cowl has reached the desired lenght - make sure to end with a row 8, 18 or 28. Leave a tail for grafting. Place the stitches from the provisional CO on the second needle, hold the ends together (RS out) as shown in the picture and graft in garter stitch ... or if you want to be very precise about things follow the instructions below ...

Actually, the row you're grafting is an RS row (a row 9, 19 or 29 to be precise) which means that there should be increases and decreases in order to keep the chevron pattern ... I solved this by sometimes treating 3 stitches as 1 stitch. To be more precise, everytime, that there'd be a scheduled double decrease in row 9 (or 19 or 29), I inserted the needle not into one stitch but into three at a time on the front needle. and every time that there'd be a scheduled double increase in row 9 (meaning a double decrease on the corresponding provisional CO row), I inserted the needle into three stitches at a time on the back needle.

Even though, I think I didn't count correctly a few times, the finished grafting row looks OK.

Donnerstag, 15. Februar 2018

I like to experiment with short rows and their effects on variegated yarn. With this piece I wanted to explore three-dimensional elements. The result was a stylish cowl with an organic look.
This cowl is basically knitted only in garter stitch, but with some increases and decreases combined with short rows to achieve the three-dimensional effect. It is stared with a provisional cast on, knitted flat and joined invisibly by grafting in garter stitch.

Using one skein of Wollmeise Twin (about 150 grams of any other fingering weight wool) the cowl will be long enough to fit twice around your neck.